


network love

by millenniumboy



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Mark is in college, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21566848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millenniumboy/pseuds/millenniumboy
Summary: Saturday nights are, unless extraordinary circumstances take over, their nights. They gather in one house, without friends and spend time together, eating like shit and watching whatever's on the tv, before they collapse onto the nearest horizontal surface, curled around each other like newborn kittens.Jeno looks forward to these nights every week, or at least heusedto. Saturday nights were reserved for him and his boyfriends but now one of them were far away and it just reminds him of how much is changing.Or, Mark is in college and Jeno, Jaemin and Donghyuck are his boyfriends, suffering through high school.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno/Mark Lee/Na Jaemin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 148





	network love

Knuckles rap the edge of Jeno’s desk but he doesn’t look up, intently bent over the last page of his math worksheet.

“I’ve got class in ten minutes and I haven’t finished,” he grumbles, batting the hand away as he flips through his notes to find the correct derivation for the inverse of tan. “Leave me alone.”

“You’re so boring,” comes Donghyuck’s sigh, but he sinks down obediently on the cushy chair by Jeno, throwing his legs up on Jeno’s lap under the table. The librarian frowns over at him as his boots clunk loudly on the underside of the table, but Donghyuck doesn't flinch.

Jeno smiles to himself, letting his notes flip open and resting his free hand on Donghyuck's ankle where the jeans are cut off, stroking at the the tendons there as he scribbles down the correct derivation.

"I told you not to take BC," Donghyuck hums to himself. Jeno spares a glance up at him and finds Donghyuck staring at his phone, the charm dangling from his ancient phone's headphone jack jingling merrily as he flicks through something.

"I need it for college," Jeno mutters. He tries not to resent Donghyuck for taking it so easy, academically, his senior year. Unlike Jeno, Donghyuck had taken all the theater classes he could manage, filling up his schedule with electives and a college statistics class at the local community college. He also had a late arrival both days and Jeno envied him fiercely.

He tries to go back to his homework and groans when he sees another half page of derivation problems to work through and drops his head on the table. " _Hyuck_."

Donghyuck coos, leaning over to run his fingers through Jeno's hair. He'd woken up early that day, getting to school well before it started to hide out in the library and work through his homework without the chaos of the morning that usually took place in his house and it showed. His hair was a mess and he was pretty sure his sweats had a stain on them from the spaghetti three nights ago. "If you want it, here."

Jeno picks his head up and glances at Donghyuck's phone lying in the space between them. On the screen sits a picture of the calculus homework, the answers scribbled out in a terrible handwriting.

"Where'd you get this?" Jeno asks, picking it up and sliding down the picture, zooming in on the writing, his fingers automatically reaching for the pencil despite the shame rising in his chest as he does.

"Mark," Donghyuck says easily. "He had the same teacher last year, don't you remember?"

"I have his notes," Jeno mutters. Their calculus teacher was well known for never changing any of his assignments or his notes, but _always_ his exams. Even if he hadn’t Jeno would have still studied his ass off for this class, it would be the worst decision he’d ever made if he decided to go into college without an ounce of calculus in his brain.

"But not his homework," Donghyuck says sagely, and when Jeno narrows his eyes at him, Donghyuck shoots him a bright smile. 

"You got Mark to give you this?" Jeno asks, dragging his homework towards him. He knows it's bad to cheat, but he hasn't slept properly in a week and the homework is taken for a completion grade anyway.

"I took his binder over the summer."

Another glare shot Donghyuck's way. 

He's met with a sunny, completely unrepentant smile.

The first two periods pass slowly, calculus dragging by at a snail's pace, and Jeno does his best to simply not fall asleep in class. He'd done the stupid thing and chosen the first row on the first week of school to force himself to pay attention. He doesn't share this class with any of his friends and the class is tiny enough that Jeno can't just slink to the back seat and fall asleep there.

Lunch is a wonderful respite. The courtyard outside the cafeteria is filled with picnic benches and large umbrellas, with a small hill that leads up to the auditorium where their group usually spreads out. Jeno trudges up to them and collapses on the ground by Chenle's leg, closing his eyes as soon as he can. His eyes burn and his head spins. God, he needs to sleep.

"Why do you look like you're about to pass out?" Chenle asks, poking the side of Jeno's head.

"Because I am," Jeno groans, sliding his backpack off as best he can by lying on his front. "I'm _so_ tired."

Jisung snorts. "Did you finish your Caltech application?"

Jeno lets out a louder groan at that reminder. He wants to apply early to Caltech to have a better chance of getting in and the deadline is sneaking up fast on him. " _No_."

A bag drops by his head and Jeno squints up, tears automatically filling his vision when the sun glares down at him, before it's covered by Jaemin's fluffy purple hair. Jeno remembers when Donghyuck had showed up at Jaemin's house, armed with a bag of hair dye, Renjun hanging off his shoulder and a viciously determined glare in his eyes.

It had taken nearly an hour of Donghyuck's whining to get Jaemin to relent, but by the end of it, there was a pleased metallic pink haired Donghyuck sitting on Jaemin's bed, a wide grin stretched across his face, and a lavender haired Jaemin grumpily sitting on the edge of the bathtub, rinsing out his hair while Renjun cackled.

"What's wrong, baby," Jaemin coos as he sits down next to Jeno, pulling out his lunch. Jeno sniffs, his stomach growling at the strong smell of kimchi wafting out of Jaemin's lunchbox and sits up, pulling his own backpack towards him, choosing food over the few precious minutes of sleep he could catch.

"Nothing," Jeno mutters, poking his fork into Jaemin's box and stealing a bite of kimchi. He'd had to make his own lunch this morning as he'd woken up before his mom even had, leaving him with a simple sandwich and an apple.

Jaemin frowns at his tone and opens his mouth, probably to push, but he's interrupted by Donghyuck and Renjun clattering to a stop in front of them. Donghyuck slings an arm around Chenle's neck and yanks him closer.

"Have you prepared for auditions?"

Chenle shrugs. "I guess but I'm not all that worried."

Donghyuck sighs, flinging himself backward on the grass, longs limbs spreading out akimbo. "Must be nice," he sighs. "I can't not get a good role this semester, I'll die of shame. Imagine being a senior and not getting at least a secondary role, I'll be whisper teased to death."

"Theatre kids are scary," Jisung hums thoughtfully, and Chenle nods in agreement.

"Don't let the mean theatre kids bother you," Jaemin says affectionately, patting Donghyuck's fluffy hair.

"But _I_ want to be a mean theatre kid that bothers _others_ ," Donghyuck sighs.

Renjun rolls his eyes. "Get up and eat before you pass out in class again."

"That was _one_ time!"

Jeno smiles faintly at his bickering friends before sliding out his phone. He'd texted Mark about Donghyuck's betrayal earlier that morning and Mark still hadn't responded. Jeno frowns.

Jisung pokes him. "Why do you look like that?"

Jeno blinks up at him, locking his phone screen so the wallpaper - a picture of all four of them at Six Flags over the summer, half wet from the water rides, hair plastered to their foreheads and grinning brightly at the camera - doesn't show. He's not in the mood to be made fun of for his sappiness.

"Like what?"

Jisung scrunches his nose. "All constipated and shit."

Jeno shrugs. "I didn't sleep properly last night." He pauses. "And the night before that."

Jisung looks disapprovingly at him. "It's only Tuesday."

"I've had a hard week."

Renjun looks over from where he’s pushing food into Donghyuck’s hand. "Take a nap."

Jeno frowns. "I'm hungry."

"And you have environmental science next period and it's a joke," Jaemin cuts in. "Nap now, eat later."

Jeno scrunches his nose but grabs his backpack to rest his head on, only for Jaemin to purse his lips down at him and pull him closer until his head is resting on Jaemin's thigh. "Here." Jaemin hands him his airpods and Jeno slides them in, crossing his arms over Jaemin's legs and falling asleep almost instantly to the soft classical music that fills his ears.

The last thing he registers is Donghyuck’s cool hand sweeping across his bangs, lulling him off to sleep.

Since high school, since the first of them had managed to pass their driver's test ( the first not being Mark, not a single one of them had counted on him to do so ) they had an elaborate carpool schedule worked out. Since Donghyuck and Chenle had auditions, they were leaving later, so the rest of them left first. Renjun had bought his own car and so he takes Jisung with him while Jaemin drives Jeno home.

He lets Jeno collapse on the ground in front of the sofa, pulling out his laptop as he does so and sighs. 

“Want something to eat?”

Jeno just pushes his glasses back up his nose and mumbles, “Whatever’s in the fridge.”

Jaemin purses his lips but goes to the kitchen in silence. There’s a box of popcorn in the pantry and Jaemin pops it in the microwave before heading back out to the living room and handing Jeno a newly filled water bottle. 

Jeno rarely registers anything else once he gets started studying, so Jaemin feels no qualms whatsoever about turning on the tv and flipping to Shark Tank while munching on the large bowl of popcorn every so often nudging Jeno to take a handful. 

"Hi baby," Dnghyuck sings, as he enters the house, setting his backpack on the floor by Jeno, who grabs the water bottle poking out the side of it and downs half of it in one go, having already finished the one Jaemin had bought him. Donghyuck glances at him, and Jaemin sees the flash of worry in his eyes, before Donghyuck leans down to kiss him. "Hi other baby."

Jeno waves at him without looking up and Donghyuck collapses on the couch nudging Jaemin’s feet over. 

“How’d your audition go?” Jaemin asks, proffering the bowl to Donghyuck who takes a handful.

Jeno looks up for the first time in hours, blinking blearily over at Donghyuck, peering over the top of his glasses and Donghyuck smiles down at him affectionately. 

“It went fine, I guess. Could have gone better, but couldn’t they all?”

“I’m sure you got it,” Jeno mumbles, patting Donghyuck absentmindedly on the knee before turning back to his laptop.

"What's up with Jeno?" Donghyuck asks Jaemin quietly as the ads end and Shark Tank comes back on. He glances over at Jeno before lowering his voice further. "He looks like he's about to snap."

"He's got an exam tomorrow," Jaemin says, frowning down at Jeno who's flicking through the online textbook at a worrying pace. "I don't know why he's stressed, he's got this in the bag."

"I've got Caltech apps due in two weeks and I haven't started the main essay yet," Jeno mutters with a tiny growl as the page freezes. "You two need to learn to whisper quieter."

Jaemin bites his lower lip. He hates to admit it, but Jaemin doesn't know how to handle Jeno when he gets like this. Juggling six friends is hard, and it's even harder when three of those friends are his boyfriends. 

"Have you talked to Mark about it?" Donghyuck asks offhandedly, popping a kernel into his mouth and wiping his finger on Jaemin’s basic Adidas sweats to try and distract him from his internal worrying. It works for a minute. 

Jeno sighs, slamming the laptop shut and scrubbing at his face. His glasses slip off his face and land on the carpet. "I texted him this morning, he hasn't answered."

Donghyuck glances at Jaemin who pulls out his phone, thumbing to his chat with Mark. Jeno's right, it seems Mark hasn't answered Jaemin's off-hand text from last night, hasn’t even opened it yet.

"Maybe you should take a break?" Jaemin suggests cautiously and Donghyuck purses his lips in silent concern. 

Jeno frowns over at him. "I'll take a break when I'm dead. Or when I get into college, whichever comes first."

Jaemin sighs. There's nothing he can do when Jeno's like this, except just let him run himself out until he collapses either from stress or exhaustion. "Turn it back up," he tells Donghyuck as the entrepreneur starts turning a wonderful shade of vermillion as one by one the sharks back out of the deal. Donghyuck casts Jeno one last look and then flicks the volume up incrementally. 

Donghyuck wakes up twenty minutes before his alarm, feeling depressingly well rested despite the fact that he’d only left Jeno’s house at some time past ten and had only then started on his homework, giving up at around three a.m and passing out. He’s lucky, he supposes, that he’s talented enough to warrant early acceptance to one of the most prestigious colleges in the country for his major. Lucky enough, certainly to not have to worry about keeping his grades above that pristine line. 

Donghyuck sighs and rolls over in bed. He’d set his alarm early in case he hadn’t managed to finish homework, but it doesn’t matter now and he’s got another hour and a half before he has to get to school. Then he notices the text from Mark sent right around the time Donghyuck had passed out. 

**the boring bf**

hey sorry i havent talked

been hungover

Donghyuck squints down at his phone. Hungover on a Monday? It seems Mark was really taking advantage of being away from home for the first time. Really coming into his own as a college freshman. He snorts. 

**you**

well when you recover from all that hard partying

give jeno a call

he’s about to snap

He puts his phone away, intent on going back to sleep but his phone chimes. 

**the boring bf**

wdym D:

**you**

what are you doing up? 

u dont have class this early

**the boring bf**

lmao i have a paper due in like three hours 

i forgot about it

**you**

the great mark lee forgetting an assignment?

what has college done to u

did u do drugs markie

im so proud

**the boring bf**

lmao no 

i just forgot

what do you mean jeno’s about to snap

**you**

you know the way he gets

he’s just stressed about caltech

and a lot of shit

and he doesn’t listen to us

**the boring bf**

:(

ill call him before school

**you**

good

ive fulfilled my bf duties

im going back to sleep now

**the boring bf**

bye hyuck

sleep well <3

Donghyuck smiles at his screen before shoving his phone as far away from as he can and pushes his face back into the pillow, falling asleep in seconds. 

The rest of the week passes in a haze. 

Jaemin considers himself in the middle between Jeno and Donghyuck’s levels of stress. Not as strung out as Jeno, certainly, with his twenty thousand AP classes and forty million college applications slowly gathering dust with every past second. But nor is he taking it as easy as Donghyuck who’s taken to sleeping in English, drooling on the cover while Renjun takes the opportunity to draw on his face. 

It’s always been that way. Since they were friends, to something more, all the way up to the cloyingly sweet title of boyfriends, Jaemin’s found himself in middle ground, between Mark and Donghyuck’s intensity that rivalled each other and Jeno’s placid laidback attitude. It’s not different this week either. 

Senior year is easy to deal with - well not _easy_ but certainly easier than previous years and when Jaemin meets the weekend, he does so with a great feeling of relief. He has the task of taking Donghyuck home on Fridays because that’s the one day out of the week Donghyuck doesn’t have his demon theatre teacher breathing down his neck. 

“How was school sweetie?” Donghyuck coos as he hops in Jaemin’s passenger seat, throwing his backpack, which looks like it has next to nothing in it, in the back seat without much care. 

“I’m glad it’s over,” Jaemin mumbles as he pulls out of his parking spot, getting an angry beep from the car behind him as he cuts them off. God, he hates high school parking lots. Especially this one. “Did you see Jeno at all today?”

Donghyuck sucks in his lower lip in contemplation. “No,” he says, pulling out his phone. “He spent lunch in the library, I think he had a quiz or something in physics.” 

Jaemin winces. He’s heard all about the horrors of AP C and he doesn’t envy Jeno the position at all to be in that class. “Is he driving himself home?”

Donghyuck nods. “Don’t worry though, I made Chenle go with him so he doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel or anything.”

Jaemin sighs. “That’s as good as we’ll get I guess.”

He drops Donghyuck off at his house, turning his face into the kiss Donghyuck tries to deliver to his cheek. It devolves into very heavy making out in Donghyuck’s driveway in minutes, enough so that Jaemin turns off his car, the keys clattering somewhere onto the mat. He crawls over the console onto Donghyuck’s, nipping at his neck so that when Donghyuck finally trips out of his car, red faced and breathless, there’s a mess of bruises down his neck, starting to redden as blood rushes back to his face. 

He doesn’t bother texting Jeno when he gets back, they are all aware that Friday evenings are when Jeno goes straight to sleep right after school and doesn’t wake up until the next morning. He bypasses all his notifications to call Mark’s number, collapsing onto his couch as he does so. 

“Min-ah.” Mark sounds surprised when he picks up. “What’s wrong?” 

Jaemin wrinkles his nose. “Why does something have to be wrong for me to call you?” 

Mark laughs. “It doesn’t, you usually don’t though.”

Jaemin purses his lips. Any sane person would tell you that having one significant other is a lot of work, a lot of commitment, a lot of time but ultimately worth all the effort. Jaemin doesn’t want to know what they’d say about his three boyfriends, but he knows it’s not easy and it’s even harder to keep that constant closeness when one of them is two hours away at college. 

“I just missed you, can’t I call you for that?” He asks, and regrets his harsh tone a moment later when Mark says nothing.

The silence goes on for a beat too long and Jaemin is about to open his mouth to say something, anything but then Mark breaks in. “You can,” he says softly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so surprised. Of course you can call me, I love it when you do.” 

Jaemin blushes at that, not used to hearing the overwhelming sincerity in Mark's voice, stark and unhidden through the phone. "Well," he mutters and falters, not knowing where to go from there.

Luckily, Mark doesn't push him on it, simply laughs a little and moves on. "What'd you call me for Minnie?"

Jaemin settles back into the couch, letting his shoulders relax. "Just wanted to talk, you've been MIA this week."

"Yeah," Mark sighs. "I'm sorry about that, college kinda got away from me."

"Yeah," Jaemin smirks though it can't be seen. He's sure Mark gets the gist anyway. "Hyuck told me all about your wild Monday nights. Are you the Mark Lee we know?"

"Who knows at this point," Mark laughs. "I think I'm more beer than water."

"Gross."

"Very."

They talk for another thirty minutes until Mark has to go to a club meeting and Jaemin hangs up, sitting on the couch in deep thought about his boyfriends, scattered across their tiny town before his body over takes him and he falls asleep right there on the couch.

Saturday nights are, unless extraordinary circumstances take over, their nights. They gather in one house, without friends and spend time together, eating like shit and watching whatever's on the tv, before they collapse onto the nearest horizontal surface, curled around each other like newborn kittens.

Jeno looks forward to these nights every week, or at least he _used_ to. Saturday nights were reserved for him and his boyfriends but now one of them were far away and it just reminds him of how much is changing.

"You're so gloomy," Jaemin sighs. They're in Donghyuck's room, waiting for Donghyuck to come back with snacks, his laptop balanced on their legs, a new movie Renjun had sworn up and down was good queued up.

Jeno pouts and then tries to pretend he hadn't just done so. "I'm not," he protests. "I like spending time with you guys."

"But you like Mark more," Jaemin teases but Jeno can hear the kernel of truth behind that statement. Jaemin had had it hardest, possibly, out of the four of them with sharing, _especially_ when Mark was involved. Donghyuck had his theories of course but whenever Jeno tried to ask, Donghyuck would simply pat him on the head and tell him to ask when he was older. Jeno scrunches his nose up at the memory.

Jaemin slides lower on the bed, until he's nearly horizontal, leaving Jeno to catch the laptop before it slides off their unbalanced thighs, eyes knowing but refusing to look at Jeno. Petty and jealous, that was the worst of Jaemin and Jeno wishes he could feel anything but fond about it. "You know he's coming home for Thanksgiving, right? It's only a couple weeks away."

"I know," Jeno mutters then he catches a glimpse of Jaemin's face and softens. "I'm sorry I'm being like this." He puts the laptop on the ground and slides under the covers to join Jaemin, throwing an arm over Jaemin's waist and pleadingly staring at him when Jaemin refuses to meet his gaze at first. " _Jaemin_."

Jaemin caves instantly and frowns over at him but it's nowhere his usual strength and Jeno grins, cuddling up towards him and pecking Jaemin's cheek.

"I'm paying attention to you, okay? Tonight is just you and Hyuckie." Jeno mumbles into the curve of Jaemin's neck. Jaemin is perhaps needier than Jeno is sometimes and it manifests only when Jeno gets stressed like he had been, as if Jaemin's only solution to make Jeno feel better was to cling like an octopus to him, sucking out all his bad feelings.

Jaemin shifts, as if he can hear all the unsaid words and Jeno grins, kissing Jaemin's cheek again. Then the world goes flat and Jaemin is hovering over Jeno, an intent look in his eyes and the startled laugh Jeno lets out get swallowed up by Jaemin as he leans forward to kiss him.

Donghyuck gasps theatrically as he comes back to see them making out in his bed. "Here I am," he starts in what Jeno has dubbed his 'theater voice', setting the snacks down and putting his hands on his hips. "Slaving away in the kitchen to feed and _sustain_ you and you two are messing around instead of helping me?"

Without detaching from Jaemin, Jeno reaches up and yanks Donghyuck down onto the bed, kissing him before he can say anything.

Things go quiet for a while after that and Jeno lets himself drown in between his boyfriends, the stress of the last couple weeks leeching out of him and away into the star speckled night.

"Jeno's being grumpy again," Jaemin informs Donghyuck when they finally settle against each other, lips kiss red and hair tousled.

Donghyuck makes a face, looking down at Jeno. "You've had it hard, haven't you?" He asks softly, instead of the scolding Jeno was expecting, his hand stroking through Jeno's hair. "I'm sorry I'm not helping, I'm being annoying about it."

Jeno thinks back to every play Donghyuck has been in, how he used to stress himself out so badly he'd break out in hives the night before the performance, how once he'd practiced so much, his throat had given out after day three of the show. School is stressful sure, but that doesn't mean Donghyuck has it any easier.

"You're not annoying," he says instead of saying all of that because they've already talked too much about feelings and _Jeno's_ going to start breaking out in hives if they continue. "Not all the time, anyway." Donghyuck scrunches his nose and Jeno laughs. "It's fine, anyway. I just have to get these apps done with and I can relax."

"You know you're going to get into any college you want, anyway," Jaemin mutters and Donghyuck nods in agreement.

“You’re stupidly smart, Jeno, you’re going far.”

Jeno smiles softly at them and doesn’t feel any shame in curling tightly up against them and demanding more kisses.

Unsurprisingly, Jeno falls asleep halfway into the movie, pressing his face into Jaemin's shoulder and softly snoring. Donghyuck arches an eyebrow down at him and then glances up at Jaemin who's smiling fondly down at Jeno.

"Even after he slept all day yesterday," Jaemin murmurs, stroking a soft hand through Jeno's hair. Jeno doesn't stir.

"Poor baby, he must be exhausted," Donghyuck agrees, laughing. "Wanna keep watching?"

Jaemin nods and Donghyuck hits the space bar, letting the movie play again, the lights flickering against the too-sharp plane of Jeno's cheeks.

About an hour after that Jaemin follows Jeno into sleep, slumping over on the pillow. Donghyuck watches them both in amusement before carefully sliding out of the bed and flicking the bedroom light off.

He grabs the empty cups and bowls and heads down to the kitchen to put them away in the sink when his phone lights up with a text from Mark. He glances at his parent's door, closed now with no light shining underneath, and moves to the living room as he calls Mark.

"Hey baby."

"What are you doing awake?" Mark asks, concern in his voice. "It's like three in the morning."

"I could ask you the same thing," Donghyuck says as he sits on the couch, dropping onto his back and letting his legs dangle over the armrest. "You texted _me_ first."

He can _hear_ Mark's shrug over the phone. "I was bored."

"At three am?"

Mark laughs. "You know I have no sleep schedule anymore. How's the sleepover going?"

It's silly but Donghyuck's chest warms at the mention of Mark remembering their weekly traditions.

"It _was_ going," he says, throwing his head back and counting the blades on the fan again and again. "Now they're both asleep."

Mark snorts. "Oh my god, so early?"

"Remember when Jaemin would stay up ‘till like four?" Donghyuck asks, a faint smile playing about his lips when he remembers the time they'd all passed out in the living room, all of them except for Jaemin, and had woken up to mustaches and badly drawn dicks decorating their faces the next morning. Mark had refused to speak to Jaemin for a week after he'd had to go home that morning and made his little sister burst out crying at the sight of his face.

Mark hums in agreement. "They're getting old," he says. "We all are."

The smile fades from Donghyuck's face. They're all getting older. While some part of Donghyuck can't wait for college— for the freedom, for the chance to start something new, the other half of him aches at the thought of awaits them in June. When Jeno disappears to Caltech, and Donghyuck across the country to New York. Jaemin's the only one staying in their town, choosing to go to the small veterinary school in the city. The only one who'll be close to Mark.

"Yeah," he says quietly, heart suddenly aching at the thought. "We are, aren't we?"

And because Mark is _Mark_ , the boy Donghyuck had grown up with, had tripped headfirst into a life-long friendship, who he'd fallen head over heels in love with, because Mark is the one person who knows Donghyuck better than he knows himself some days, he catches onto his thoughts, despite being three hours away and exhausted to the bones of his very being. "It'll be okay, Donghyuck," he says quietly. "We're not going to fall apart."

"You don't know that," Donghyuck argues because that's what he does. Mark reasons and Donghyuck argues and back and forth they go until one of them gets too exhausted with arguing and launches forward to kiss the other fully on the mouth. But Mark isn't here and Donghyuck can't kiss him and his other boyfriends are fast asleep upstairs and he doesn't have the heart to wake them and so here he is, ready to argue. Ready to open the wound that had scabbed over since Mark's departure, that threatens to bleed open all over again. "We could just stop talking, the distance could be too much. Jeno can hardly handle the stress and you gone _now_. Imagine what it's going to be like when he's across the country and we're all gone."

It almost feels like Mark's sigh ruffles Donghyuck's hair, but that's just wishful thinking. "It could happen," he agrees. "But I don't think it will."

"Your faith in the power of phone calls is a bit severe, I think."

"Not in phones, idiot," Mark shoots back because for all his understanding he's still _Mark_ and he's still going to get annoyed by Donghyuck at some point. "In us."

Silence falls between them, mostly due to the fact that Donghyuck's jaw is hanging open and Mark is probably blushing beet red on the other side.

"I can't believe you just said," Donghyuck says, a loud laugh on the edge of his voice, that's he just barely holding back because his parents would not hesitate to murder him if he woke them up at this time. " _Oh my god Mark_."

"Shut up," Mark hisses and Donghyuck can't handle it anymore, clamps a hand over his mouth and lets his giggles loose. "I hate you Hyuck, really."

"No," Donghyuck draws out, still laughing. "You _love_ me. You have _faith_ in our everlasting bonds."

Mark makes a huffing noise and Donghyuck laughs again. "You're going to wake up my roommate with your cackling," Mark says.

"Fine, fine," Donghyuck says, calming down. "Honestly, Mark, I can't believe you said that."

"And I never will again," Mark promises before hesitating. "Is Jeno still not doing okay though? I thought he was doing better."

The amusement fades from Donghyuck just as quickly as it had come.

"He is? He's just stressed, I think. His physics teacher is a nightmare apparently."

Mark makes a concerned noise. "Should I call him again tomorrow?"

"It wouldn't hurt." Donghyuck waits a beat. "Don't ignore Jaemin."

"I _don't_ ," Mark says indignantly, immediately springing up to defend himself. "It's- I love Jaemin, you _know_ that. It's just hard to balance everything and that includes all of you."

"I know," Donghyuck says conciliatory. "I know, Mark. Just make sure he knows that too, okay?"

Mark sighs. "Okay." A beat. "Thanks, Hyuck."

Donghyuck swings himself off the chair and flicks the light off as he leaves the living room. "Anytime, Mark. You know that."

Donghyuck wakes up freezing.

He peers over the top of his blanket at his alarm clock, a cat Jaemin had bought him from the city with the numbers blinking along its belly, and groans when he sees how late he is for school.

The weekend had passed by in a blur and Donghyuck, knowing it was irrational, had felt a deep kind of sadness root into his heart when Jaemin and Jeno had left his house sometime past noon on Sunday, pressing still sleep warm kisses to the curve of Donghyuck's cheek before jogging to Jaemin's car.

Donghyuck grabs his stuff as fast he can and in his haste, can't find his regular jacket, so he forgoes looking for it and just grabs the first jacket he can see and runs out the door, a banana haphazardly shoved into his backpack.

He honestly doesn't realise what he's wearing as outerwear until Jaemin, in third period English, points dramatically at him and gasps. "How could you?"

Donghyuck stares at him in confusion for a beat and then glances down, only then realising that he's got Mark's old basketball varsity jacket pulled on, the heavy coat pulled over his fingertips and warming him up better than any jacket Donghyuck owns could. "Oh," he says, plucking at the patch on the right side of the coat. "I didn't even realise I was wearing this."

"I can't believe you stole Mark's jacket," Jaemin says indignantly, dropping his backpack and settling into the desk by Donghyuck. "How did he not see his varsity jacket was missing?"

Donghyuck snorts. "Please, Mark's room is a pig sty. He keeps it filthy. He won't notice anything."

Jaemin's lip pushes out. "I can't believe you took it. That's cheating."

Donghyuck snorts. "Don't hate because you didn't think of it first. Besides, I look so much cuter in it than any of you."

Jaemin shakes his head. "Wrong, Jeno would out-cute you any day."

Jaemin gets proven right later in the day when they're sitting out in the courtyard and Jeno starts shivering and takes Mark's jacket from Donghyuck.

He _does_ look unbelievably cute in it, with his fluffy hair poking out of the hood and Donghyuck can't help the bitterness failing in him to make way for all the fondness. Jaemin coos loudly at him and kisses him right there on the grass in front of everyone.

Donghyuck watches Jeno turn bright red under Jaemin's hands, as he kisses back, throwing his arms around Jaemin's neck and wishes, quietly, achingly, that Mark was there.

Surprisingly the week passes by quickly for Jeno. He doesn’t understand when people say senior year is the best time in high school; all Jeno feels is worn down and exhausted and stressed to the point where he feels far too thin, like too little string stretching to tie the knots and hold. But this week speeds by. He’s got relatively few assignments and he actually manages to pull more than four hours of sleep a night and when he reaches home on Friday, he doesn’t immediately pass out in his room and fall into a deep sleep. 

It’s the only reason he hears the doorbell ring when he’s lounging on the couch, idly flicking through his laptop, considering his assignments and doing nothing more than considering them. 

“What are you doing here?” Jeno asks in astonishment when he opens the door and finds Jaemin and Donghyuck standing side by side, with wide grins on their faces. “I thought we were meeting tomorrow.”

The grins widen and Jeno feels a stab of concern. “What did you two do?” 

“The lack of faith in us is hurtful, Jeno,” Donghyuck says blithely, shoving past him into Jeno’s living room and tossing his bag onto the couch. Jaemin follows but with a kiss pressed to the top of Jeno’s cheekbone. 

“We just thought, since you were free and you’ll probably start stressing out tomorrow morning, we should come visit you now.”

“I…” Words fails Jeno. “I’m sorry.”

Jaemin turns, a surprised look on his face. “What are you apologising for?” 

“I haven’t been very available for you guys, have I?” It’s a rhetorical question so when Jaemin opens his mouth to refute, Jeno barrels on. “I know I haven’t and I’m sorry about that.” 

“You’re stressed.” Jaemin steps closer. “And you aren’t a bad boyfriend.”

“We’re all stressed,” Jeno points out. 

“But you more than the rest of us,” Jaemin says, stepping closer and cradling Jeno’s face with his hands. His big eyes are worried and his hands are smoothing up Jeno’s hair, scratching soothingly. “And it’s okay to focus on yourself sometimes, you know. We don’t think you’re a bad person simply because you’re trying to get college applications done.”

Jeno closes his eyes, submitting to the soothing feeling. “I know,” he mumbles, letting his head drop down onto Jaemin’s solid chest. “I’m still sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry or I’ll bite your tongue off,” Donghyuck’s voice calls from far off and Jeno, despite himself, smiles. 

“Kinky,” Jaemin calls back and Donghyuck’s noise of disgust can be heard just as clearly as if he was standing beside them. Jeno hasn’t looked up but he feels Jaemin shake in silent laughter. 

Jaemin wraps his arms around Jeno’s waist and drops his pointy chin atop Jeno’s head. It hurts but Jeno doesn’t move. 

They lounge about snacking and talking and Jeno feels like he’s in heaven, curled between his two boyfriends as House of Cards plays on in the background. 

But when the doorbell rings, neither Jaemin nor Donghyuck make a move to go answer it. Jeno pouts at them but when they just smile back at him, he groans and gets up, grabbing the cash from the table for the tip. 

“Hey, I just-” the words die from Jeno's lips when he sees who is standing there, the pizza they'd ordered clutched in one hand and a duffel bag in the other.

A smile stretches across Mark's face. "Hey, Jeno it's been-"

And any following words Mark might have dies as Jeno flings himself into his arms, wrapping his arms tightly around Mark's body, clinging as hard as he can. " _Mark_."

"Oh my god, Jeno I'm going to drop the pizza," Mark says, panicked but Jeno doesn't bother letting go and in the next second he hears the soft _thump_ of Mark's duffel bag hitting the ground before he wraps his free arm around Jeno's waist. "Hey you," Mark murmurs and Jeno can hear the smile on his face.

"You're here?" Jeno mumbles, face still pressed into the crook of Mark's neck. "How are you here? How -" He pulls back and he knows it's silly, knows that he's probably being over dramatic but he can't help the burning at the back of his eyes that threaten to spill into something very watery and dramatic. "You're _here_."

Mark tips his head to the side, his eyes bright behind his glasses, nearly slipping off his nose from the force of the hug Jeno had attacked him with, and his hat askew atop his fluffy hair and smiles. "I am," he says simply. "Want to let me in so that I can totally kiss you?"

Jeno doesn't even hesitate to haul him inside, throwing the duffel bag at a surprised Jaemin and turning around just as Mark sets the pizza boxes down and flings himself into his arms, kissing him so hard they nearly slam into the wall.

Mark laughs against Jeno's mouth and adjusts his grip on Jeno's hips, to pull him closer, tilting his head to lick into Jeno's mouth and Jeno sighs, eyes fluttering shut under the pressure.

"I missed you," Jeno murmurs in between kisses. He can hear Jaemin and Donghyuck laughing quietly to themselves but he doesn't bother stopping. He hasn't seen Mark in _months_ and they've been such long, tiring months and Jeno's just _missed_ him.

"I heard," Mark says simply, cupping his cheeks in his hands and kissing Jeno's nose once before drawing back and gazing at him. "I couldn't keep my baby waiting any longer, now could I?"

Jeno turns pink.

Once Donghyuck and Jaemin get their hello’s in, Jeno unable to look away as Jaemin plants one straight on Mark’s upturned mouth, they all crowd on the same couch, limbs tangled and slowly losing feeling as they shift into a comfortable position. Jeno claims the spot right by Mark and nestles under his arm as Donghyuck, sitting atop a previously complaining Jaemin, argues with Jaemin about what movie they’re going to watch. 

“How long are you here for?” Jeno asks Mark quietly, as the argument beside them gets louder. Jaemin smacks Donghyuck and Donghyuck smacks him right back, unrepentant and holding the remote out of his reach.

Mark glances up at the terrible duo beside them before turning his attention back to Jeno, a faint smile playing about his lips. “Just for the weekend.” Jeno nods, trying to feel too crestfallen. He knows Mark has school, just as the rest of them do, it’s just harder for him to let go when he knows he won’t see Mark at least for another few weeks. Mark tips his chin up to make Jeno meet his gaze. “I’m coming back in two weeks for Thanksgiving,” he says quietly, eyes serious, no previous levity in his gaze. Wanting Jeno to know he’s not taking this flippantly. “I’m sorry I’ve been so distant, I’m working on it. And I’m coming back, I’m not going anywhere.” 

Jeno blushes, though he’s unable to look away despite wanting to. “I know,” he mumbles. “You haven’t been distant, Mark, you’re enjoying college. I’m not going to stop you from doing that. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Mark snorts. “Apply the same policy to yourself once then.” When Jeno widens his eyes at him, Mark raises an eyebrow. “What, you think Jaemin wouldn’t call me the second you started to stress out?”

Jeno shrugs. He knows Jaemin and Donghyuck had been worried, had been watching him like a hawk for the last few weeks, making sure he was never alone for long, not unless Jeno specifically asked for it. “They’re good boyfriends,” is all he settles on in the end and Mark’s stern expression melts into a fond smile. 

“They are,” he says and he and Jeno both turn to see Jaemin and Donghyuck passionately making out on the opposite side of the couch, the remote lying on the ground, fight forgotten. Or maybe this was part of their fight, Jeno could never tell. 

“You are too,” Jeno tells him, because he thinks it has to be said. “And you’re not losing us either. You’re stuck with us, _all_ of us, for a while. 

Mark’s smile softens, if possible as he glances down at Jeno. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, baby.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading~


End file.
